Earthly Blessings 3: The Story of Job

"Earthly Blessings 3: The Story of Job" 8/19/12 Job 1:1-3; 42:10, 12-17

I. Introduction
A. Series on Earthly Blessings
1. First week: In Mark 10:28-30 Jesus’ followers will enjoy 100 times as much as what is lost for following Him.
2. Last week in Psalm 23 we reflected on our earthly blessings from having a good shepherd.
3. This week I would like to think about the book of Job together.
B. “Only Jack would use the book of Job to show us how blessed we are in this life!” Here’s a good and upright guy, who loses everything & suffers enormously. You might think that he teaches us about being cursed, not about being blessed.
II. Job 1:1-3 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. Job 42:10, 12-17 The Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before... 12 And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He had also seven sons and three daughters. 14 And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. 15 And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. 16 And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, four generations. 17 And Job died, an old man, and full of days.
A. The book of Job has important lessons for us from his sufferings and losses. But there are also important lessons from all his years of blessedness and abundance.
B. In terms of the space in the book of Job, the vast majority is his suffering. But in terms of the time of his life, the opposite is true. The vast majority of Job’s life was spent in earthly richness and blessedness.
1. In one sense, Job is the ultimate example of a righteous person who enjoyed earthly blessings.
C. The thing that makes Job’s suffering so remarkable is how exceptional it is. What happened to Job isn’t usually the way things happen.
D. Job was both godly and blessed in terms of earthly things. And the fact is that those two often come together in the ordinary providence of God.
1. “For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” (1Timothy 4:8)
E. Everyone experiences little tastes of Job-like sufferings. But generally we don’t get it like Job got it.
F. Godliness has valuable earthly benefits, as it did in the case of Job.
G. For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; 11 let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. 12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” (1Pt.3:10-12)
III. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)
A. There are MANY benefits of following Christ, including earthly ones.
B. All of us know this by experience. We have enjoyed enormous amounts of earthly blessings.
1. Houses, jobs, cars, family, health, friends, food, protection, opportunities, privileges, things these eyes have seen, things these ears have heard, how much love I’ve been shown, gifts I’ve been given, deeds done for me, enjoyable things I’ve been able to do, things I’ve seen God do
C. Job was a great example of this.
1. And in some ways, we’ve been blessed more than Job ever was. We are richer. He probably never took a hot shower in his life. He never drove in a car. He never traveled far from home. He never read a book. He never watched a movie. He never received medical care when he was sick or injured. He never played in a ball game. He never saw a great work of art. We are very blessed.
D. Matt.6:33 Keeping the object of desire in the right place: not seeking first all these things.
E. “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Mat.10:39)
F. The notion that the righteous will be blessed in earthly ways is frequently taught in the Bible. The book of Job was given to us to correct the fallacy that this is always the case. But the principle is still true.
G. Today this fallacy that righteousness and faith always lead to earthly blessing is called “the health and wealth gospel.”
1. There is some truth to it. There are many passages which talk about how God blesses the righteous in earthly ways.
a. But every error is based on a truth. “Every heresy has its verse.”
2. The fact is that there’s no guarantee. There is no promise.
a. It’s not always a faith issue when you’re sick or poor or unsuccessful. There are other reasons God allows suffering.
3. Job’s friends didn’t know there were exceptions. They were the original ones to say, “The reason you’re suffering is because you don’t have enough faith. If you just believed more, you’d be healed.”
IV. You see, God knows that plenty doesn’t produce happiness. Happiness comes from knowing the love of Christ. That’s how God made us.
A. It is not that God doesn’t want to bless us with earthly advantages. But, as Paul warns in 1Tim.6:17-19, it is tempting to put one’s hope in riches when a person experiences a lot of earthly blessing.
1. Solomon is a good example of this.
2. E.g. my tendency to take pride in blessing, success
B. Suffering is important to keep the righteous humble, and keep them crying out to God.
C. Isn’t it obvious that God didn’t enjoy allowing Job’s suffering, but that He did enjoy restoring Job’s fortunes.
1. God loves to bless us, but doesn’t enjoy allowing us to suffer.
2. Just like Jesus. The Father didn’t enjoy His Son’s suffering on the cross, but He was happy about the wonderful results.
V. There are many earthly blessings in following Christ.
A. “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Ps.16:11)
B. He is a good father. He loves His children, and He give them good things.
C. Let us be like Job and seek Him first, and He will provide us with all things.
D. Do not seek the Lord in order to obtain the earthly blessings, for that’s not seeking the Lord at all. That’s seeking earthly blessings.